ROUND 17 kicks off with the top of the table Raiders taking on the Roosters at Aussie Stadium. The Raiders have completely dominated the competition to date but will face changes to their squad this week. Ace halfback Van Dijk suffered a hamstring injury against Cronulla ruling him out for this match. It means Gafa moves into halfback to form a new combination with Evans. Also Mashall Chalk comes back from injury to take up the fullback spot left by Phil Graham who has gone back up to first grade. For the Roosters Lopini Paea will move from the centres into the second row for this clash. Despite the loss of Dijk, the Raiders should come into this match as strong favourites.

BRONCOS CEO Nic Cartwright has come out and said that Wednesday night's heavy loss to the Bulls made him proud. He said: "Despite the magnitude of the loss our fans continued to give it their best for the full eighty minutes.

WELCOME to the real world. No this is not the Matrix, rather round 21 of the NRL Telstra Premiership and the day of reckoning for the Canberra Raiders has finally arrived. Pretenders or contenders is the back page headline. Well, considering the Raiders have already beaten the Panthers, Bulldogs, Dragons, Warriors and came within an inch of beating the Brisbane Broncos, I'd like to ask what more do we have to do to get some respect around here? Even our losses have been by small margins. Canberra have only lost one game all season by more than 12 points.